Costco Doesn't Look Cheap Enough

Costco Wholesale Corp.'s finance chief joked in March about how the trendy vegetable may be one way to counter competitors targeting young, urban and health-conscious customers—in other words, Amazon.com Inc. and its Prime service. The online behemoth isn't the first company to mimic Costco's fee-based model. The world's top retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has long competed directly through its...